I visited Brookville Lake briefly this morning and found an immature 
plumaged BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE across the lake from the beach at 
Mounds State Recreation Area, Franklin Co.  The bird was resting on 
the water and doing short flights.  The bird was present at 08:30. 
To my knowledge this is the first record of this species in the 
Whitewater River Valley.

In a side-by-side comparison with a Ring-billed Gull it was smaller 
in size.  The bird had a dark post-ocular spot proportionally larger 
in size than the similar spot on a Bonaparte's Gull.  A dark nape 
patch extending down onto the sides of the neck was conspicuous.  The 
outer primaries were dark and a dark line ran from the bend of the 
wing to the distal portions of the tertials (essentially along the 
median wing coverts.  This produced a white triangle on the inner 
primaries and most of the secondaries.  The mantle was pale gray, 
darker than the primary/secondary triangle.  The tail was white, 
squared or slightly notched with black terminal band, wider on the 
central tail feathers.

Bill Buskirk
Biology Department
Earlham College
Richmond, IN 47374